BIOESTIBAS

Álvaro Vásquez – Colombia

$36,513.17 Total funding received

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A flourishing idea for a greener future.

Bioestibas produces ecological stowage made with flower waste, that would normally be polluting the environment. Today the production of pallets for industrial needs causes 40% of global deforestation. At the same time flower growers around Medellin, Colombia, generate over 9,000 tons of flower stems per month. These stems are incinerated, causing huge environmental pollution. Bioestibas aims to solve these two problems through ecological pallets. Instead of using wood, we use wasted stems from flower farming. Our pallets are created without cutting a single tree and instead we collect the stems without cost, we cut them, mould them and press them, turning a once hazardous waste material into an ecologically sustainable solution.

Funding would allow us to grow.

Each month, we prevent the logging of over 775 trees and the emission of 1,260 tons of greenhouse gases. We help over 1,100 farmers to appropriately dispose of thousands of hydrangea stems, while creating a superior product that saves over 75% in storage and transportation costs. With additional funds those numbers could swell and our positive impact widen. I am a father of five and I am committed to the preservation of our planet for future generations.

We have overcome a number of challenges in setting up Bioestibas.

People were accustomed to the use of traditional stowage, a stowage that has been around for 60 years with little to no modification. It was a sector not known for innovation and entering it with our product was a bold move. But perhaps the most difficult thing was to make stowage that would actually work. We went to China to see how three factories of this type of stowage operated, and we brought machinery. The factory engineer from China who was going to help us assemble the machinery and train us, was then denied entry into Colombia. As a result, we had to get a cook in a Chinese restaurant to serve as translator over Skype...What we intended to accomplish in a month took nine, but it was all a great learning adventure.